An independent blog looking at things from a classically liberal perspective. We are independent of any group or organization, and only speak for ourselves, and intend to keep it that way.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Homeland Security, ally of bin Laden.

The Border Nazis at Homeland Security have struck another blow for fortress America. They are giving the finger to all those nations which share visa free travel with the United States. In other words they are treating our friends rather shabbily. And I suspect the long term result will be more travel hassles for Americans as nations get sick and tired of the morons that Bush put in charge of this unconstitutional, authoritarian agency.

There are 27 countries where visas were not needed for their citizens to visit the United States. In return Americans didn’t need visas to travel there. What the Homeland Reichmarshalls have done is say that anyone from those countries must now register on line with Homeland Security three days before traveling.

Of course the “terrorist” menace is once again used as the excuse. Travel to the United States has suffered do to the assholes that Homeland Security made into little dictators at the airports. Some airlines have re-routed international flights to avoid the United States complete. And that costs the economy millions. Of course the fear-mongers will spout off, “if it just saves one life it is worth it, blah, blah, blah....” Give me a break!

Each little roadblock reduces the number of travelers. But that is what the jerks in D.C. seem to want. They are turning coming up with the worst possible combination of policies. The United States is grossly interventionist, sticking its unwelcomed nose in the affairs of nations around the world. It has soldiers stations in nation after nation without any constitutional justification Yet when it comes to peaceful dealings with the rest of the world the neocons are doing their level best to destroy them.

Immigration is basically cut off except for those who manage to cross illegally. The U.S. is moving away from free trade and back to protectionism under all sorts of excuses. And we are making it more difficult for foreign visitors to come to America. So the U.S. is becoming more isolationists in the true sense of the word while becoming more interventionist.

Of course the two go together. Let’s be honest here, the foreign policy we have was originated by the imperialists and adopted by the Democrats first -- Wilson and Roosevelt were major proponents of global interventionism. Then the Republicans decided to “me-too” the Democrats and become interventionists as well. Of course when you are a major bully harassing nations around the world you make a lot of enemies. And sometimes those enemies want to do nasty things to you. So then you hunker down in your fortress and begin losing the benefits of trade. In the end you become poorer. Of course you need someone to scapegoat so you lash out at foreigners and immigrants. (It isn’t nice looking in the mirror to discover the source of your own troubles.) And around and around it goes.

You piss off more and more of the world and find that more and more people hate you. Of course if you are George Bush you blame them this and never, absolutely never, take any responsibility for screwing up the world with endless interventions.

So who is going to be hurt by this? Terrorists? Nope. If they were planning an attack on the U.S. they would send a sleeper who registers three days in advance. If not that they could fly to Canada and walk across thousands of miles of unprotected borders. The people hurt are the last minute travellers. So if you have relatives overseas and you get deathly ill don’t expect them to be at your bedside unless you can give them at least three days notice of your death.

And businessmen often find that contracts or deals need last minute negotiations. The more high powered the business the more likely it is that they may end up making travel arrangements at the very last minute. If they can’t travel because some overpaid thug at Homeland Security came up with this stupid idea their companies could lose millions. But the bureaucrats don’t care -- they don’t earn money honesty they appropriate it by force from taxpayers. That is how the deal with us in ever way -- they threaten and intimidate and coerce. They don’t know the art of exchange, of giving value for value. They simply take what they want and demand obedience.

Here is what I predict. You will soon see the nations that are being harassed by Homeland Security retaliating against Americans by doing the same thing to us. So don’t bother looking for any “last minute” deals on travels -- sure they might be there but unless you register on line three days before hand (which you can’t do with a lot of last minute travel deals) you can’t go. And that will make travel for everyone a little more expensive. How? Right now the travel industry often fills empty spaces with last minute deals to reduce any loses from being under booked. If that becomes more difficult then those cost get recouped by higher fees.

We ought to admit that bin Laden outsmarted Dubya -- of course I’ve had bowel movements that could outsmart him. Bin Laden said that the way he would punish America for intervening in the Middle East. He said he would “bleed America to the point of bankruptcy.” All he had to do was one attack and the politicians would jump in and finish his job for him. They would destroy the economy by confiscating billions and billions of private capital in order to regulate what is left to death. They would stifle creativity and trade. They would regulate travel and reduce freedom for Americans. And the costs would accumulate and accumulate until a collapse is inevitable.

So Bush and Homeland Security and conservatives spouting about Islamo-fascism are actually the best friends that bin Laden has. They continue to wipe out billions in production in order to fund their paranoid “security state”. At the same time they are hurting trade directly and reducing wealth through all their senseless regulations. Bin Laden knew what he was doing. He knows politicians better than the voters. All he needed do was one attack on the United States several years ago and George Bush would do the rest of the job for him.

The real terrorists who are harming America today are in the White House and the Congress and especially in Homeland Security. As horrific as the bin Laden's attack was these bureaucrats have superseded it in every way. Bush has killed more Americans in Iraq than bin Laden killed on 9/11. The government has inflicted more economic damage fighting terrorism than the terrorists caused themselves. Fear mongering politicians are truly the Fifth Column of the al Qaeda.